| Ipa Symbol: | θ |
| Ipa Number: | 130 |
| Decimal1: | 952 |
| Imagefile: | IPA Unicode 0x0728.svg |
| X-Sampa: | T |
| Kirshenbaum: | T |
| Braille: | decimal |
| Braille2: | 1456 |
The voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative is a type of consonantal sound used in some spoken languages. It is familiar to most English speakers as the 'th' in think. Though rather rare as a phoneme among the world's languages, it is encountered in some of the most widespread and influential ones. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is (IPA|θ), and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is T. The IPA symbol is the lowercase Greek letter theta, which is used for this sound in post-classical Greek, and the sound is thus often referred to as "theta".
The dental non-sibilant fricatives are often called "interdental" because they are often produced with the tongue between the upper and lower teeth, and not just against the back of the upper or lower teeth, as they are with other dental consonants.
This sound and its voiced counterpart are rare phonemes, occurring in 4% of languages in a phonological analysis of 2,155 languages.[1] Among the more than 60 languages with over 10 million speakers, only English, northern varieties of the Berber languages of North Africa, Standard Peninsular Spanish, various dialects of Arabic, Swahili (in words derived from Arabic), and Greek have the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative. Speakers of languages and dialects without the sound sometimes have difficulty producing or distinguishing it from similar sounds, especially if they have had no chance to acquire it in childhood, and typically replace it with a voiceless alveolar fricative (pronounced as //s//) (as in Indonesian), voiceless dental stop (pronounced as //t//), or a voiceless labiodental fricative (pronounced as //f//); known respectively as th-alveolarization, th-stopping, and th-fronting.
The sound is known to have disappeared from a number of languages, e.g. from most of the Germanic languages or dialects, where it is retained only in Scots, English, and Icelandic, but it is alveolar in the last of these.[2] Among non-Germanic Indo-European languages as a whole, the sound was also once much more widespread, but is today preserved in a few languages including the Brythonic languages, Peninsular Spanish, Galician, Venetian, Tuscan, Albanian, some Occitan dialects and Greek. It has likewise disappeared from many modern vernacular varieties of Arabic, like Egyptian Arabic. Classical Arabic (used in reciting the Quran) still retains the sound.
Features of the voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative:
It does not have the grooved tongue and directed airflow, or the high frequencies, of a sibilant.
| Language | Word | Meaning | Notes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albanian: [[Albanian alphabet|'''th'''otë]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[θɔtə]/ | 'says' | ||||
| Arabic: [[Arabic alphabet|ثَوْب]] | 'a dress' | Represented by (ث). See Arabic phonology. | ||||
| Eastern Libya | Arabic: ثِلاثة | pronounced as /[θɪˈlæːθæ]/ | 'three' | |||
| Sanaa, Yemen | Arabic: يِثَمَّن | pronounced as /[jɪˈθæmːæn]/ | 'it is priced' | |||
| Iraq | Arabic: ثمانْية | pronounced as /[θ(ɪ)ˈmæːnjæ]/ | 'eight' | |||
| Khuzestan, Iran | Arabic: الثانْية | pronounced as /[ɪθˈθæːnjæ]/ | 'the second one' | |||
| Aragonese: arbu'''z'''o | pronounced as /[arˈbuθo]/ | 'bush' | ||||
| Arapaho: yoo'''3'''on | pronounced as /[jɔːθɔn]/ | 'five' | ||||
| marchiê | pronounced as /[maʁθ'ia]/ | 'market' | ||||
| èthêla | pronounced as /[e'θɛːla]/ | 'star' | ||||
| cllâf | pronounced as /[θo]/ | 'key' | Limited to (VD), Bourg-Saint-Pierre (VS), and a few other villages. | |||
| ܒܝܬܐ bèṭa | pronounced as /[beːθa]/ | 'house' | Mostly used in the Western, Barwari, Tel Keppe, Batnaya and Alqosh dialects; realized as pronounced as /link/ in other varieties. | |||
| Asturian; Bable; Leonese; Asturleonese: [[Asturian alphabet|'''z'''usmiu]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈθusmju]/ | 'juice' | ||||
| Avestan: xšaθra | pronounced as /[xʃaθra]/ | 'kingdom' | Ancient dead sacred language. | |||
| Bashkir | [[:wikt:дуҫ|ду'''ҫ''']] / du'''θ''' | 'friend' | ||||
| Berber languages: [[Berber Latin alphabet|'''Ṯ'''maziɣ'''ṯ''']] | pronounced as /[θmæzɪɣθ]/ | 'Berber (language)'(noun) | This pronunciation is common in northern Morocco, central Morocco, and northern Algeria. | |||
| pronounced as /[θɪ́ŋɑ̀]/ | 'to eat' | |||||
| pronounced as /[θòʊ̯̃]/ | 'three' | Commonly realized as an affricate pronounced as /link/. | ||||
| Cornish: e'''th''' | pronounced as /[ɛθ]/ | 'eight' | ||||
| Emiliano-Romagnol[3] | fâ'''z'''a|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈfaːθɐ]/ | 'face' | |||
| English | Received Pronunciation | thin | pronounced as /[θɪn]/ | 'thin' | ||
| Western American | Interdental. | |||||
| Most dialects | Galician: '''c'''ero|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈθɛɾo]/ | 'zero' | Merges with pronounced as //s// into pronounced as /link/ in Western dialects. See Galician phonology | ||
| Greek, Modern (1453-);: [[Greek alphabet|'''θ'''άλασσα]] | pronounced as /[ˈθalasa]/ | 'sea' | See Modern Greek phonology | |||
| pronounced as /[riθo]/ | 'eye' | |||||
| Gwich'in: '''th'''ał | pronounced as /[θaɬ]/ | 'pants' | ||||
| '''θ'''qet | pronounced as /[θqet]/ | 'tree' | ||||
| nih'''th'''än | pronounced as /[nihθɑn]/ | 'I want' | ||||
| pronounced as /[θəroː]/ | 'two' | |||||
| Iraqi | Hebrew: [[Hebrew alphabet|עברי'''ת''']]|rtl=yes | pronounced as /[ʕibˈriːθ]/ | 'Hebrew' (language) | See Modern Hebrew phonology | ||
| pronounced as /[ʕivˈriːθ]/ | ||||||
| Basadung | pronounced as /[θsio]/ | 'one' | ||||
| Italian: [[Italian orthography|i capi'''t'''ani]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[iˌhäɸiˈθäːni]/ | 'the captains' | Intervocalic allophone of pronounced as //t//. See Italian phonology and Tuscan gorgia | |||
| Kabyle: [[Berber Latin alphabet|'''ṯ'''afa'''ṯ''']] | pronounced as /[θafaθ]/ | 'light'(noun) | ||||
| Sgaw | pronounced as /[θə˧]/ | 'three' | ||||
| yiθa | pronounced as /[jiθa]/ | 'one' | ||||
| neθwi | pronounced as /[nɛθwi]/ | 'three' | ||||
| pronounced as /[mɑ̄ˈθíl]/ | 'to laugh' | |||||
| ceru | pronounced as /[θeɾu]/ | 'zero' | ||||
| pronounced as /[θar]/ | 'four' | |||||
| Malay: '''S'''ela'''s'''a|italic=yes | pronounced as /[θəlaθa]/ | 'Tuesday' | Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound, but the writing is not distinguished from the Arabic loanwords with the pronounced as /[s]/ sound and this sound must be learned separately by the speakers. See Malay phonology. | |||
| pronounced as /[faθ]/ | 'five' | |||||
| Gascon | macipon | pronounced as /[maθiˈpu]/ | '(male) child' | Limited the sub-dialects of the region of Castillonais, in the Ariège department. | ||
| Vivaro-Alpine | chin | pronounced as /[θĩ]/ | 'dog' | Limited to Vénosc, in the Isère department. | ||
| Avestan: '''''' xšāyaθiya | pronounced as /[xʃaːjaθija]/ | 'king' | This sound does not occur in modern Persian. | |||
| TÁŦES | pronounced as /[teθʔəs]/ | 'eight' | ||||
| Nuorese | Sardinian: pe'''th'''a | pronounced as /[pɛθa]/ | 'meat' | |||
| pronounced as /[θar]/ | 'four' | |||||
| n'''th'''wi | pronounced as /[nθwɪ]/ | 'three' | ||||
| ktusa | pronounced as /[ktũˈθa]/ | 'four' | ||||
| Spanish; Castilian: [[Spanish orthography|ca'''z'''ar]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[käˈθ̪͆äɾ]/ | 'to hunt' | Interdental. See Spanish phonology and Seseo. This sound is not contrastive in the Americas, southern Andalusia or the Canary Islands. | |||
| Spanish; Castilian: pare'''d''' | pronounced as /[paˈɾeθ]/ | 'wall' | Word-final, especially in Madrid. Corresponds to pronounced as /[ð]/ in standard Spanish. | |||
| Swahili: [[Latin script|'''th'''amini]] | pronounced as /[θɑˈmini]/ | 'value' | Mostly occurs in Arabic loanwords originally containing this sound. | |||
| '''th'''iit | pronounced as /[θiːtʰ]/ | 'embers' | ||||
| [[Tamil script|உஇனபஒ'''த''']] | pronounced as /[wɨnboθ]/ | 'nine' | ||||
| '''th'''o | pronounced as /[θo]/ | 'pants' | ||||
| '''th'''ü | pronounced as /[θɨ]/ | |||||
| pronounced as /[θerap]/ | 'five' | |||||
| pronounced as /[θarap]/ | ||||||
| pronounced as /[θerapi]/ | ||||||
| Eastern dialects | '''ç'''inque|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ˈθiŋkwe]/ | 'five' | Corresponds to pronounced as //s// in other dialects. | ||
| Wolaitta; Wolaytta: shi'''thth'''a|italic=yes | pronounced as /[ɕiθθa]/ | 'flower' | ||||
| Welsh: [[Welsh alphabet|sai'''th''']]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[saiθ]/ | 'seven' | ||||
| Zhuang; Chuang: [[Zhuang alphabet|'''s'''aw]]|italic=yes | pronounced as /[θaːu˨˦]/ | 'language' | ||||
| Zotung | Standard dialect of Lungngo | kacciade | pronounced as /[kəˈθʲaːðɛ]/ | 'I go' | Realized as pronounced as /[sʲ]/ and pronounced as /[t]/ in Aikap and other Northern dialects. It can also be voiced depending on the preceding consonant. | |
| Above: | Voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant |
| Ipa Symbol: | s̻̪ |
| Ipa Symbol2: | s̪̻ |
| Ipa Symbol3: | s̟ |
| Imagefile: | Voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant.png |
| X-Sampa: | s_m_d |
The voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant is the only sibilant fricative in some dialects of Andalusian Spanish. It has no official symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet, though its features would be transcribed (IPA|s̻̪) or (IPA|s̪̻) (using the (IPA|◌̻), the diacritic marking a laminal consonant, and (IPA|◌̪), the diacritic marking a dental consonant). It is usually represented by an ad-hoc symbol such as (IPA|s̄), (IPA|θˢ̣), or (IPA|s̟) (advanced diacritic).
describes this sound as follows: "pronounced as /[s̄]/ is a voiceless, corono-dentoalveolar groove fricative, the so-called s coronal or s plana because of the relatively flat shape of the tongue body.... To this writer, the coronal pronounced as /[s̄]/, heard throughout Andalusia, should be characterized by such terms as "soft," "fuzzy," or "imprecise," which, as we shall see, brings it quite close to one variety of pronounced as //θ// ... Canfield has referred, quite correctly, in our opinion, to this pronounced as /[s̄]/ as "the lisping coronal-dental," and Amado Alonso remarks how close it is to the post-dental pronounced as /[θ̦]/, suggesting a combined symbol pronounced as /[θˢ̣]/ to represent it".
Features of the voiceless denti-alveolar sibilant:
pronounced as /navigation/